Examination of the Bouchet–Morton Complementary Relationship Using a Mesoscale Climate Model and Observations under a Progressive Irrigation Scenario

The complementary relationship between actual and potential evaporation over southeastern Turkey was examined using a mesoscale climate model and field data. Model simulations of both actual and potential evaporation produce realistic temporal patterns in comparison to those estimated from field data; as evaporation from the surface increases with increasing irrigation, potential evaporation decreases. This is in accordance with the Bouchet–Morton complementary relationship and suggests that actual evapotranspiration can be readily computed from routine meteorological observations. The driving mechanisms behind irrigation-related changes in actual and potential evaporation include reduced wind velocities, increased atmospheric stability, and depressed humidity deficits. The relative role of each in preserving the complementary relation is assessed by fitting a potential evaporation model to pan evaporation data. The importance of reduced wind velocity in maintaining complementarity was unexpected, and thus examined further using a set of perturbation simulation experiments with changing roughness parameters (reflecting growing cotton crops), changing moisture conditions (reflecting irrigation), and both. Three potential causes of wind velocity reduction associated with irrigation may be increased surface roughness, decreased thermal convection that influences momentum transfer, and the development of anomalous high pressure that counteracts the background wind field. All three are evident in the mesoscale model results, but the primary cause is the pressure-induced local wind system. The apparent necessity of capturing mesoscale dynamical feedbacks in maintaining complementarity between potential and actual evaporation suggests that a theory more complicated than current descriptions (which are based on feedbacks between actual evaporation and temperature and/or humidity gradients) is required to explain the complementary relationship.